Sheathed needle devices are not new. Some sheathed needle devices include a needle protective housing pivotally hinged to the base of the needle. Once the sheath that covers the needle prior to its use has been removed and the needle presumably having been used, the needle protective housing is moved to cover the needle to prevent the contaminated needle from being further exposed. Among patents disclosing needle devices that have a needle protective housing hingedly connected to the base of the needle, the following are assigned to the same assignee of the instant application: U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,489, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,311, U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,285, U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,455, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,311, U.S. RE37,110 and U.S. RE37,252. For these devices, as shown for example in U.S. RE37,252, prior to use, the needle is covered by a sheath. To use, the needle device is held with one hand, while the sheath is removed by the other hand. After use, the needle protective housing is pivoted in a direction toward the needle to cover the contaminated needle.
That a sheathed needle device requires a two-handed operation means that the clinician has to have both hands free, one hand holding the needle device while the other hand being used to remove the sheath. But oftentimes while the clinician is holding the sheathed needle device with one hand, her other hand is holding something else that requires that she continues to hold. There is therefore a need for a sheathed needle device that is designed to have its sheath removed by a one handed operation, in that the hand of the clinician that is holding the sheathed needle device is also adaptable to remove the sheath from the needle device.